232 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY 



Only two of these growers, much to my surprise, 

 mention the use of sprouted oats. Only one mentions 

 clover. I judge this to mean that most of them consider 

 free range a necessity, and that they do not need to 

 supply the bulky feeds. If chicks are to be grown in 

 confinement, the one salvation for the grower is to keep 

 them at work, which can be best done by burying grain 

 in the soil regularly, and putting it in so deep that it will 

 sprout. I once listened to the story of a woman who 

 raised wonderful chickens on a city lot. She said she 

 could not have done it had she not had chick ladders, 

 which they were compelled to use, in various parts of 

 the houses and runs. It seems to me that it is decidedly 

 better for the chicks to work for something rather than 

 for the sake of work alone. 



One point in the Australian Competitions which makes 

 them so valuable to the world at large lies in the fact 

 that they are consistent efforts to do things in a way 

 that can be followed by any worker with poultry. Only 

 in the use of flocks smaller than are usually thought 

 profitable do they depart from the path of the common 

 man. The housing is of the simplest, the feed cheap 

 and everywhere obtainable, the hens actually " bor- 

 rowed " from the workers of the land for testing in 

 competition. Professor Thompson, the conductor of 

 the tests, says : " the whole of the tests have been 

 carried out on plain, practical lines within reach of the 

 ordinary farmer." The mash, mixed in winter with boil- 

 ing water and in summer with cold water, is composed 

 of one fourth bran and three fourths " pollard " (which 

 Mr. Purvis says means middlings in "American"). 

 Twice a week, a pound of boiled liver to ten hens is 



